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The last two years of Tom Mason's life professionally have been brutal.

He was defensive coordinator at SMU in 2014 when coach June Jones abruptly quit after two games, Mason was at Hawaii last season when Norm Chow was fired at midseason.

There was a list of things Mason wanted with a new job, none bigger than stability. He found that when Sean Kugler asked him to coordinate UTEP's defense.

“I can't stand 'bend but don't break' defenses. I'd rather take shots at a turnover than let them go on eight minute drives.”

Tom Mason, new UTEP defensive coordinator

"Big time," said the 38-year coaching veteran. "One thing I wanted to make sure in a program it wasn't going to be one and done. I'm ready to come into a community, a mid-sized or bigger city where people care about the program, you've got kids you can win with ... I'm not a move-around type of guy. I'll be here as long as coach Kugler is here, as long as he's not tired of me."

In seven years at SMU and seven years before that at Fresno State, Mason coached in the Sun Bowl regularly, most recently part of an Mustang team that threw a shutout at UTEP in 2012.

"When things fell apart (at Hawaii), when we were looking to leave the island, at where we wanted to be, my wife and I, we'd love to be back in Texas," Mason said. "I'd love to be in the South. We're in Texas, we're about as far south as you can get."

As for what he plans on bringing to UTEP, it's going to be a major scheme change from a 4-2-5 to a 3-4, but one both he and Kugler feel fits the personnel that returns.

"We're going to be an aggressive 3-4, fire-zone blitz them," Mason said. "When I was with June Jones we fire blitzed on 70 percent of the snaps. That was 60 to 65 percent last year. I can't stand 'bend but don't break' defenses. I'd rather take shots at a turnover than let them go on eight minute drives.

"This is a fun defense for the kids, they love it, fans love to watch it. With Sean, it really fits his mentality: hard-nosed, aggressive football. You've got to create turnovers in today's football. I want to turn the ball over and give you four or five extra shots to get the ball offensively. I've had good success with that."

The peak of that was in 2012 when SMU was third nationally in turnovers forced with 37, but that defense didn't always get the ball back for its offense. That team led the nation with eight interception returns for touchdowns, including one against the Miners. UTEP forced 12 turnovers last season, 117th nationally.

Mason said he hasn't finalized staff assignments, but he coached inside linebackers at Hawaii. He inherits an assistant just hired to coach linebackers, Don Yanowski, who presumably will now be the outside linebackers coach.

The new scheme will also mean a new recruiting philosophy.

"We've got recruiting to do, a lot of recruiting to do at the linebacker position," Kugler said. "We'll sign as many as five linebackers this recruiting class, which will be a record for us."

Meanwhile, what at season's end looked like the projected two-deep at end now could be the two-deep at outside linebacker: Nick Usher, Silas Firstley, Luke Elsner and Lawrence Montegut. That would leave Brian Madunezim, Mike Sota and Christian Richardson as potential ends.

Ultimately, though, Kugler said recruiting will be easier now.

"This fits what we do," Kugler said. "It's easier to get linebackers and safeties who can run than it is to get 300-pound linemen here."

With Kugler's offseason of recruiting coaches now officially over, that's where the focus now turns.

Bret Bloomquist may be reached at 546-6151; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @bretbloomquist on Twitter.